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U.S.BUREAU Olf EDUCAT'IO N 
High Schools for Girls 
in Sweden, 






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I 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 

U.'JBUBEAU OF EDUCATION. 



HIGH SCHOOLS FOE GIRLS IN SWEDEN. 



Department of the Interior, 
Bureau of Education, 

Washington, November 3. 1882. 
Among the most engrossing topics of educational interest at the present day are 
the numerous questions connected with the improvement of the education of women. 
I am called upon to give the experience in this connection in every part of the civil- 
ized world. Reports of very interesting and successful improvements in Sweden 
have recently come to hand, a summary of which is hereby submitted. 

JOHN EATON, 

Commissionei: 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1882. 



4998 






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HIGH SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS IN SWEDEN. 



Until the early part of this century the education of women Had preserved an ex- 
clusively private character in Sweden. The rich families of the aristocracy intrusted 
the education of their daughters to governesses, and the middle classes in easy cir- 
cumstances had recourse to private schools estahlished in the cities or the country. 
These schools were always in charge of women, and were ordinarily comhined with 
accommodations for hoarding a greater or less number of pupils. A certain numher 
of women received in this way a relatively good education, considering the demands 
of the times, hut the great majority, even among the educated classes, were content 
with very elementary instruction. According to the ideas then in vogue, it was a 
waste of time for women to devote themselves much to study ; it was enough for them 
to know how to manage their domestic affairs properly and to appear well in society. 
In the private hoarding schools the principal aim was to enahle the scholars to carry 
on a conversation in foreign languages, especially French. Music, painting, and 
fancy.work held a subordinate place. Religious instruction was generally given hy a 
clergyman and embraced as a minimum the knowledge necessary for the confirma- 
tion of catechumens. The study of history, geography, and mathematics was reduced 
to the lowest terms, aud there was no question of natural sciences. 

Between the years 1820 and 1830 the need of puhlic establishments for young girls 
hegan to he felt. In 1826 a merchant of Gothemburg, M. Jonas Kjellberg, be- 
queathed to that city the sum of 50,000 crowns (about $13,500), in memory of his 
wife, for the establishment of an institution for the higher education of women. 
That institution was opened in 1835 ; it has received additional gifts at different 
times from the Kjellberg family, and is still in operation under the name of "The 
Kjellberg School." In 1831 there was opened at Stockholm, through the efforts of 
Bishop Wallin, a new school for the education of women, which was designed to en- 
able young girls to acquire the same serious and substantial instruction boys received 
in the public schools. This establishment is still in existence, under the name of 
"The Wallin School." It is a strictly private institution. All the measures tend- 
ing to elevate the instruction of women could not, however, attain their complete 
development without government aid in providing capable teachers. A vigorous im- 
pulse in this direction was given by a number of professors and men of learning, 
interested in the education of women, who organized at Stockholm, in the winter of 
1858-'59, a course of higher instruction for adult females. Many of their scholars 
were already teachers and others wished to prepare themselves for that vocation. 
From that moment the government took the movement in hand. The first normal 
schools for female teachers of primary schools were opened in 1860 and the normal 
school for female teachers of secondary schools was opined at Stockholm in 1861. 
Now there are 5 government normal schools for female teachers of primary schools 
and 7 for males. More than half the teachers of the primary schools are women 
who, for the most part, have charge of the lower primary schools. The principal 
object of the superior normal school for female teachers is to train private teachers, 
tbat is, governesses, as well as mistresses of higher girls' schools. At present it gradu- 
ates twenty or twenty-five such teachers annually. 

3 



It was only after the establishment of these normal schools that a sufficient number 
of secondary schools for girls could be started to meet the demands of the times. In 
1866 the Swedish Diet asked the government to inquire what occasion there was for 
establishing other public institutions for women besides the normal schools above 
mentioned and to submit any project that might be made upon the subject to the 
national congress. A commission was appointed to examine into the matter, which 
submitted a very interesting report, accompanied by a plan for the establishment of 
public schools for young girls Acting upon the conclusions of this report, the gov- 
ernment asked the assistance of the Diet for the foundation of such schools, but that 
body refused its assent, regarding the demands upon it satisfied by its support of the 
existing secondary schools for boys, which were public establishments in which in- 
struction was given almost gratis. Girls' schools being of a private nature, it was 
thought sufficient to aid them by annual appropriations, which should be directed so 
as to secure gratuitous instruction to a certain number of poor girls. About 50,000 
crowns (about$13,500) are now paid annually in this way to secondary schools for girls, 
which are required in return to give instruction to a certain number of poor girls free, 
and to others for tuition fees not exceeding 50 crowns each per annum. This subsidy 
must be renewed every three years on application from the schools, accompanied with 
full information as to the management of the school, the plan of studies, programmes 
of studies, &c; in short, with complete statistics of the status of the schools. 

The total number of girls' high schools in Sweden is now between 60 and 70. Only 
one belongs to the government, namely, the practice school attached to the Superior 
Normal School for female teachers. The object of this school is to serve as a model for 
other high schools and to give an opportunity to the scholars of the normal school of 
attending the school exercises and of taking part iu them, so as to get practice in 
teaching. Nearly one-half of these girls' schools are municipal institutions to a 
greater or less extent. In localities where the district or community has not estab- 
lished such schools, intelligent and educated or tolerably wealthy private individuals 
have joined together for that purpose. Generally they contribute a considerable sum 
at the outset to start the institution, and guarantee additional amounts in case of need. 
The greater part of these schools receive aid from the district in which they are 
placed or from business concerns in the neighborhood, and some from the general 
council of the province. It is probable that they will gradually become purely com- 
munity or district schools, and will eventually be taken in charge by the municipal- 
ities. The other half of the girls' high schools are exclusively private, and are estab- 
lished wherever they can be supported by the tuition fees. With the exception of 
the Kjellberg school at Gothemburg, all the institutions for the superior education of 
women receive tuition fees. Iu this respect they differ from all the other educational 
institutions of the country. 

Whereas it was formerly the custom to intrust the education of girls to women ex- 
clusively, nearly one-half of these modern girls' high schools have male directors as 
well as female, but, with the exception of the directors (male and female), their teach- 
ers are women. Professors in special branches are called in to give instruction in the 
schools, but they are not attached to the teaching corps. 

The annual expenses of a school of about one hundred scholars are from ten thousand 
to twelve thousand crowns ($"2,700 to $3,240). At Gothemburg the "new high school 
for young girls," with about one hundred and seventy-five pupils, costs 25,000 crowns 
($6,750) against 40,000 crowns ($10,800) for the two establishments at Stockholm 
(the Wallin School and the young girls' lyceum), which have about two huudred and 
fifty scholars each. 

The directress of such a school receives a salary of 1,200 crowns a year besides fire 
and lodging. In some localities the amount is larger, reaching 2,000 crowns (,#540) in 
some institutions in Stockholm and 2,500 crowns ($675) in Gothemburg. The direc- 
tors receive better pay. The largest salary at present is 5,500 crowns ($1,485). The 



salary of the other female teachers ranges from 1,000 to 1,200 crowns, aud more. The 
professors are paid for their special lahors at the rate of 2 or 3 crowns an hour. 

The normal school teachers are the best paid. There are nine of them at the nor- 
mal schools for female teachers of primary schools, and four at the Superior Normal 
School at Stockholm with the practice school annexed. These ladies are paid by the 
government and receive 1,500 crowns ($400) in the lower class and 3,500 crowns (1945) 
in the upper. Every live years the salary is increased by a bonus of 500 crowns. 

The course of instruction in these schools is designed to give girls an education 
comparable, so far as solidity is concerned, to that which boys receive in secondary 
schools. One advantage of the somewhat superficial instruction of the old fashioned 
boarding school was that there was no danger of overworking the scholars, and that 
a practical, if simple, end was always kept in view, viz, that of training the pupils 
to appear well in society. The new schools are open to the objections often made 
against high schools for boys, that they furnish too great a variety of matter and ex- 
act an excess of work from the students. Still, the object of education is to develop 
the intellectual faculties in all directions, and this should be the aim of all educa- 
tional institutions of the present day. An idea of the scope of the education given in 
these girls' high schools in Sweden may be obtained from the following programme of 
subjects taught in one of them, which is substantially a representative one. The fig- 
ures oi the table give the number of hours devoted to each subject of study by each of 
the classes. 



Subjects. 



Religion 

Swedish language 
French language . 
Geiinan language 
English language 

Geography 

History 

Mathematics 

Natural sciences . . 

Calligraphy 

Drawing 

Pancy work 

Singing 



Classes. 



2 
2 
3 
1 
Gymnastics li 



Total 27* 



28£ j 28| 29 



3 j 
5 

3 I 
3 



3 ' 3 

4 4 
3 3 



30J | 30J I 30^ 



20 
27 
43 
14 

9 
11 
18 
23 
12 

7 
15 
15 

8 
12 

234 



These studies are all obligatory in the three lower classes ; in the fourth, fifth, and 
sixth classes fancy work is optional ; in the sevenlh and eighth classes one of the foreign 
languages may be dispensed with, as well as geometry aud drawing ; singing and gym- 
nastics are elective in these two classes. French is the foreign language most in demand. 
In the western part of the country, however, and in some cities, the schools commence 
with German, aud one of them gives English a prominent place. The fact that German 
occupies the leading place in secondary schools for boys may account for its compara- 
tive popularity iu girls' schools, but in the majority of them French holds its sway and 
has increased in popularity in the last few years. 

The age for admission to these high schools for girls is generally fixed at nine years, 
as in the boys' schools. Most of the girls' schools have a preparatory department 
which embraces three classes for children from six to nine years. It will appear from 



6 

the programme of studies that obligatory instruction is, strictly speaking, limited to 
the first six classes; consequently obligatory studies are confined to a period ending 
■with the fifteenth year of the pupil's age. A certain liberty of choice of studies exists 
already in the upper classes of the schools, and this liberty will probably be extended 
in accordance with the desires of the scholars and others concerned. In this way ad- 
ditional studies of an advanced nature have already been introduced into or grafted 
upon the regular curriculum, and a line is being drawn between the schools proper 
and the course of study for adult young women. 



